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symphony and opera house orchestras in
various countries. With a durable and well-
managed tenor voice and a remarkable
combination of stamina and eagerness to
test new dimensions, Domingo has moved
beyond the familiar French and Italian rep-
ertoire to become fluent as a performer in
Wagnerian and Russian operas. He has
become, some have contended, the best-
known Spaniard of his time.
of convulsions in the region, with slave
revolts, the proclamation of Haitian inde-
pendence, and gradual loss of Spanish con-
trol in what had come to be known as
Santo Domingo. An ephemeral Dominican
Republic emerged when the Spanish colo-
nists sought to follow the pattern estab-
lished throughout the Spanish-American
empire during the early 1820s. Haitian
invaders quickly unified the island under
their control, and it was not until 1844 that
an independent Dominican Republic
emerged in the area formerly ruled by
Spain. Internal political rivalries and the
threat of a renewed Haitian invasion
impelled the Dominican leaders to make a
startling offer in 1860 when they proposed
to reenter the Spanish Empire. M
ADRID
was
now given the unprecedented opportunity
of regaining control of a dependency that it
had been forced to surrender decades ear-
lier. The offer was not a completely attrac-
tive one, for the situation in Santo
Domingo was far from prosperous, and the
Haitian threat remained present. Further-
more the United States had proclaimed its
opposition to new colonial enterprises in
the Western Hemisphere. Spain neverthe-
less undertook to reestablish its presence
in Santo Domingo and remained in posses-
sion until 1865. The end of the American
Civil War (which also precipitated France's
abandonment of its puppet regime in M
EX
-
ICO
) made Spain's position in Hispaniola
untenable. Moreover the persistence of
nationalism among Dominicans and the
fact that Santo Domingo cost Spain more
than it could earn from its presence there
led to its final departure. Spain's perenni-
ally lost colony was now permanently lost.
The Dominican Republic resumed its sepa-
rate existence in 1865.
Dominican Republic (República
Dominicana)
When C
HRISTOPHER
C
OLUMBUS
founded a
settlement on the island that he named H
IS
-
PANIOLA
in 1493, he was establishing the
first Spanish colony in the New World. It
would be the first of a series of “lost colo-
nies” on that island. The discoverer's men
left behind on that occasion had disap-
peared by the time he returned on his sec-
ond voyage (presumably slain in a dispute
with Amerindians). Spain's next outpost on
the island was established at the opposite
end of Hispaniola, in what is now the
Dominican Republic. Within a short time it
languished to the point of near disappear-
ance as the tide of conquest rolled on to the
North and South American mainland. By
the late 1600s Spain's presence in Hispan-
iola had become so enfeebled that it was
neither staunchly defended nor greatly
regretted when France, newly triumphant
in the Caribbean, took control of the west-
ern end of the island. During the 18th cen-
tury Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti)
prospered while the Spanish-ruled eastern
two-thirds of the island continued to decline
in economic and military vitality.
The era of the French Revolutionary and
Napoleonic Wars (1789-1815) saw a series
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